Neonics in the water?! | Honey Bee Haven the U S as well as much of the soy is pre treated with neonics before planted And now residual chemicals from those pre treated seeds are showing up in the waterways near where both of those crops are grown in high numbers As stated in the report s abstract An area of intense corn and soybean production in the Midwestern United States was chosen to study this issue because of the high agricultural use of neonicotinoids via both seed treatments and other forms of application Compounding the problem Midwestern streams lakes and rivers already stuggle with contamination from agricultural runoff and residual chemicals as noted by PAN Midwest organizer Linda Wells It s alarming anytime a widely used pesticide starts building up in our waterways Here in the Midwest we are already struggling with contaminated rivers and lakes We don t need to add to the problem with another controversial class of pesticides like neonics And this is certainly adding to the problem Tom Philpott reports in Mother Jones At their peak the neonic traces in Iowa streams reached levels well above those considered toxic for aquatic organisms Philpott also notes that these findings directly contradict industry talking points Pesticidemakers and their front groups would have us believe that seeds treated with neonics the most widely used class of insecticide in the world are entirely safe not to mention effective Take for instance this excerpt from a 2014 report by CropLife America a primary lobbying group for the pesticide industry Due to its precise application directly to the seed which is then planted below the soil surface seed treatment reduces potential off target exposure to plants and animals The new report from USGS tells a different story Neonicotinoids are leaching into waterways and in addition to harming bees foraging

Your (not so) “bee-friendly” plants | Honey Bee Haven at sublethal doses they re toxic to bees and other pollinators But the science is clear pesticides particularly neonics are playing a key role in bee declines That s the case for most of the levels found in nursery plants they might not kill bees outright but they are increasingly linked to reproductive impairment immune suppression homing failure and impaired foraging all factors that compound the other stressors bees face and contribute to their decline However none of this is true if you ask neonic manufacturers like Bayer and Syngenta They continue to spin and confuse the issue downplaying the role their products play by obfuscating the science around pesticides and pollinators and attempting to re focus public conversation on other bee stressors like mites But the science is clear pesticides particularly neonics are playing a key role in bee declines The wake up call science report Earlier this week 29 independent scientists released the four years in the making Worldwide Integrated Assessment on the impacts of neonics after reviewing hundreds of scientific papers The report documents significant harms to honey bees and other pollinators as well as entire ecosystems that serve as the underpinnings of our food system One of the report s lead authors summarized the situation as Far from protecting food production the use of neonics is threatening the very infrastructure which enables it imperiling the pollinators habitat engineer and natural pest controllers at the heart of a functioning ecosystem Among the findings of the report Neonics are incredibly persistent lingering in the soil up to several years The breakdown products or metabolites of neonics can be more toxic than their so called active ingredients The current measures of the risks of neonics aren t working and conceal their true impact My colleague and PAN s staff

Happy Pollinator Week! | Honey Bee Haven have a lively Twitter chat every day of the week on a range of topics at 10am PT Hope you can join us for all of it Monday 6 16 eTownhall live streaming 6pm PT 9pm ET What s the buzz about A conversation about bee declines impacts on our food system what you can do about it Co sponsored by Pesticide Action Network Center for Food Safety Beyond Pesticides and TakePart this event will be live streamed from the Berkeley Food Institute Feel free to promote using the attached graphic To RSVP receive the streaming link please go to http bit ly BeeTownHall And be sure to submit questions for the panelists during the event via Twitter with the hashtag BeeChat Panelists Todd Woody Senior Editor for Environment and Wildlife TakePart moderator Susan Kegley PhD CEO Pesticide Research Institute Gene Brandi Beekeeper and Vice President American Beekeeping Federation Claire Kremen PhD Co Director Berkeley Food Institute Professor Environmental Science Policy and Management UC Berkeley If you re in the Bay Area and would like to join the discussion in person at the Berkeley Food Institute please email Olivier panna org Daily Twitter chats 6 16 6 20 10am PT